Theroux is so, so much more unpleasant than any of those dudes. Trust me. There's a reason he's not being published by a major house.

I have to disagree with the characterizations of the novels as "excellent." I found both "Adultery" and "Darconville" to be deadly tedious slogs in the end. Dude makes William Gass look like P.G. Wodehouse in terms of needless pedantry and curdled, toxic attitudes. It's like being harangued by a classics professor…

I got an unsolicited CD in the mail from the good folks at Surge, who had "curated" as they'd say today, a whole bunch of righteous alternative tuneage for my listening pleasure. I still have that CD somewhere, I need to find out who was on it.

@postcrunk Sublime's actual music was what attracted the frat boys though. I'm talking about "Date Rape," and all that fake B-boy swagger and the chauvinist, dumb as dirt lyrics. Sublime was not as bad as some of their fans, but they shouldn't get a free pass, either. I was 16 when that list was current, so I was…

I don't know, I hate to play the bitter hipster here, but any song named "Angels of the Silences" should be instant mocked just for its terrible name. It's like the title of a 13-year-old's dream journal.
The Crows certainly aren't the worst, but they are unarguably cheesy, and there are lots of other bands out there…

"Anniversary" is a great jam.  Ben Ratliff kind of gets at what's changed for Callahan over the years here: http://nyti.ms/WKniLJ
It might help you get into "Apocalypse" a little more too.
Finally, "Ex-Con" is another huge number from "Red Apple Falls."

Holy cow, my best friend in high school had that movie for a while on VHS. It's not for the faint of anything.

Red Apple Falls has far fewer longeurs than Dongs. Also "Worse Than a Stranger"!
Really though, he's been on a monster roll since "Whaleheart."

This show is the night before the due date of my nascent child. BUT, the Record Bar is right by the hospital. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, how many drinks can I get away with?

"When in Rome" is  perfectly serviceable rainy-afternoon rom-com fare.

Sugar's "File Under Easy Listening" is up there, too.

This is America. We use short tons here, sirrah.

I don't see what's so ludicrous about people choosing pablum over hamfisted crap. It's a sad situation for everybody, but I'd argue that NBC comes out worse than Ohioans, in this scenario.

Dammit, Skate Cop, you gleamed out five city cubes! You're out of control!

Into the crevasse!

Fantagraphics is slowly releasing all the old Barks comics in very nice hardback collections. Just start with "Lost in the Andes" and go in order from there. You won't be disappointed.

The whole Kit Cloudkicker/cloud surfing thing bumps TS down for me. He was like Roy from that Simpsons episode — just there as pandering.

That one scene were Schwarzman sticks his head out of the train window to enjoy a cigarette in the dusk makes the whole movie for me. It's such a casual, unforced moment of grace, whereas Zissou tried to squeeze sentiment from a bunch of animated fish.

I agree. I was in college in Seattle in the late '90s, so that pretty much means i saw BTS what seems like every other week. In smaller, more clublike venues they can definitely get the job done, but they have their longeurs in more theater-type spaces.

Get real. Bell House has great sound, good sight lines and has hosted a veritable bevy of awesome rock shows. (Hot Snakes, Crooked Fingers, Walkmen, many, many more. Webster Hall sounds like crap, has overpriced drinks and terrible views.